Bricks
by At A Venture
Summary: SPOILERS THRU DEAD AND GONE! ESN. In a retelling of Chapter 10 of D&G, Eric discovers Sookie's mental block.


Bricks

--

I wrung out most of the water from the square white cloth and carried it to her. She was lying on top of the sheets, her head turned to one side, her mouth stained with my blood. I stepped over the clothes I'd dumped unceremoniously on the bedroom floor and knelt beside her. A few drops fell onto her face, and I squeezed the rag to spill even more water across her nose and cheeks. She coughed as a few drops spilled into her mouth and her eyes jumped open.

"Too much?" I asked. The bathroom light cast a strange yellow glow on her pale skin.

"Enough," she replied in a muted tone. I took the cloth back to the bathroom and folded it beside the sink basin. I took a matching dry cloth from a rack over the toilet and used it to dry her face, to pat away the tendrils of water that fell down to her throat.

"Cold," she murmured bluntly. "Where are my clothes?"

"Stained," I sighed. I reached for the blanket sitting on the end of her bed and pulled it up to her shoulders. I took off my shoes and crawled under it beside her. I stared at her face, the dried drop of blood on her lower lip. Her skin had the faintest glow, despite the harshness of incandescent light.

"Do you love him?" I asked. I imagined the tiger standing out there, threatening her. I imagined him touching her, and anxiety crawled through my skin like silver cat's claws. I wanted to kill the beast if only to keep him away from her. But if she loved him, I couldn't do anything but watch.

"Are they alive?" She changed the subject. She often did, and it irritated me to no end.

"Quinn drove away with a few broken ribs and a broken jaw," I said quietly. He was lucky. He was extremely lucky I wasn't here. I could control the rage in my voice, keep the peace between us. She didn't need to see me angry, not now. "Bill will heal tonight, if he hasn't already."

"I guess you had something to do with Bill being here?" I did, but she seemed to believe that Bill wouldn't have been there without my summons. He would be, without question. Though Sookie was mine, Bill continued to love her unconditionally. Regardless of whether I had asked him to show up, he would have been fighting for her. He was ready to die for her.

"I knew when Quinn disobeyed our ruling. He was sighted within half an hour of crossing into my area. And Bill was the closest vampire to send to your house. His task was to make sure you weren't being harassed while I made my way here. He took his role a little too seriously." I paused and looked at her. I moved an inch closer to her. "I'm sorry you were hurt."

I felt responsible. More than that, I felt angry. I was angrier at myself for not being there to protect her than I was at Quinn for being there in the first place. I should have been the one to keep that damn tiger's paws off her. Instead, I'd had to delegate to someone else. I could have screamed in my own distracted rage. She smiled for some reason, and I couldn't discern the gesture's purpose.

"So they stopped fighting when I hit the ground, I hope." She spoke in an offhand way, as though it were all a joke.

"Yes, the collision ended the scuffle," I replied through clenched teeth.

"Did Quinn leave on his own?"

"Yes, he did." I replied. "I told him I would take care of you. He knew he'd crossed too many lines by coming to see you, since I'd told him not to enter my area. Bill was less accepting, but I made him return to his house."

"Did you give me some of your blood?" She could taste it on her lips, her tongue. It excited me, and at the same time, I was filled with immense joy that it had kept her physically safe.

"You had been knocked unconscious," I said. I knew little of human biology, but unconsciousness was not something to be taken lightly. "And I know that is serious. I wanted you to feel well. It was my fault." I hadn't been there. I had let her get hurt. She was my priority. She was the only thing I cared about.

"Mr. High-handed," Sookie grumbled as though the words tasted sour on her tongue.

"Explain," I frowned. "I don't know this term."

"It means someone who thinks he knows what's best for everyone." She was almost sneering. "He makes decisions for them without asking them."

"Then I am high-handed," I said bluntly. Would she rather I had let her die? I'd brought her harm. She could have…well, I didn't know if she would have died, but she would have been at the very least in a lot of pain. If I could do something to stop that, if I could keep her safe, I'd do it.

She looked so beautiful in the near-darkness, her skin bright with my blood coursing through her. Her mouth was rosy red with it, and her eyes were stained with a bit of disdain for me that only made me want her more. I could show her that I needed to keep her safe. She was mine, my ward and my lover, my pledged. She was a part of me in a way that no human had ever been. A part of my soul lived inside her. Desire spilled from my pores like blood from an open wound.

"I can have my own life now. It's time I claimed what is mine." I bent down and kissed her, tasted her lips through the blood, sank into her skin like melting into a pillow. She warmed to the kiss, though I could feel her anxiety about the decision through the bond between us. Her hand drifted down my back, her fingers tracing the muscle and bone. I touched her cheek, examined the line of her jaw with my fingertips, sucked tenderly on her lower lip. I'd missed her in a way I couldn't quite explain, even to myself. She was the half of me that was missing, the living part of my eternal death. I descended into her as though I had never left.

"Do you really remember?" She asked, her voice nervous, as though she didn't believe something I had tried to assure her of many times. "Do you really remember staying with me before? Do you remember what it felt like?"

I found her eyes, and stared down into them. Was she really seeing me? I couldn't tell. Anxiety built up inside her like a wall of red brick, and I wasn't sure my will could penetrate it. I held her cheek for a moment before I answered her. I smiled, my thoughts full of more than lust for her.

"Oh yes," I whispered, almost moaning with the memory of it. "I remember." With my other hand, I unhooked her brassiere and drew it free. I cupped her breast, the soft skin filling my hand like baker's dough. Her skin was so soft and smooth, so tender. "How could I forget these?"

I dipped down from her face to her chest and pulled her smooth flesh into my mouth. I grazed it with my fangs, bit down just a bit, enough to taste a trickle of her blood before the wound closed again. Her hand reached for me, stroked the swelling in my jeans, pulled at the zipper. Her breath quickened, and I could hear her heart beat faster. I tore my clothes free and carefully pulled away the pair of white cotton panties she'd worn. I bent back down to her mouth, found them parted and panting air. Passion set the room to spinning, and urgency passed between us. Her voice was aching, thirsty for me, begging to be quenched. I pressed a hard thumb against the focal point of her pleasure and she squirmed beneath me, unable to control the whims of her body.

"Eric," she groaned. "Now."

"Oh yes," I replied in a voice that didn't sound like my own. I found her face, her eyes so bright in the darkness. They caught the light of the single lamp and sparkled like diamonds. Only part of my girl was really there, part of her was still hidden away inside, behind a red brick wall.

"This is best," I whispered, taking her hand. She clenched my palm as though we might be torn away from one another. I tried to break inside her, to make her see what I saw. "This is best, this is right."

She couldn't see me. Not yet. She couldn't see anything but that wall, blocking out everything that meant she would have to open her heart and feel. Why I was ready, after a thousand years of nothingness? Why was she so closed off to me? I couldn't tell. I found the blackness of walled out emotions in her eyes and I tried to seep into her. I engaged her, conversed with her, had her, felt her, but I could only bring her so far. I had to have more.

She would come to me when she was ready. I wondered what it would take to free her.


End file.
